What
are the dangers ?
•
Children are being sexually abused to make pornography
that is then circulated via the Internet and
mobile phones.
The Internet has fuelled an explosion in the
production and circulation of images of child
abuse. Easier access to child pornography spurs
demand, which increases the commercial incentive
to make more images - and to abuse more children.
• Children are sold online for sex.
• Children risk being ‘groomed’
by strangers who intend to abuse and exploit
them. Pornography is commonly used in this ‘grooming’
process.
• Children are encouraged to post photos,
personal details and/or videos of themselves
and others on the Internet, or to send them
via email or mobile phones to strangers.
• Children are exposed online to a range
of materials that can be extremely damaging,
including adult pornography, race hate, suicide,
anorexia, self-harm.
The arrival of the Internet as a mass consumer
product has facilitated abuses against children
and young people that are more far-reaching
in their consequences and more difficult to
track than was the case before the rise of the
Internet. For example, there has been a colossal
increase in the production and distribution
of child pornography, with more children being
recruited and abused by criminal gangs in order
to supply images for sale. Often, the same criminal
gangs who produce images of child sexual abuse
are also involved in trafficking of children
for prostitution and sex tourism.
One police action uncovered 300,000 people
in 66 countries who had bought child-abuse images
from a single website, using their credit cards.
The website selling the images was in the United
States but the men supplying most of the images
were in Russia and Indonesia. This case neatly
underlines the global nature of the problem
and the need for global responses.
Images of sexual abuse of children are made
for the sexual gratification of adults. But
adults also commonly use these images in the
process of ‘grooming’, or preparing,
a child for sexual abuse and exploitation.
Children and young people all over the world
have been contacted through Internet chat rooms,
newsgroups, peer2peer systems, mobile phones
and other technologies, by adults seeking out
legal minors to sexually abuse and exploit.
Instant messaging systems have also been misused
by adults for the same purpose. These adults,
who typically mask their identities, gain a
child’s confidence over time and may seem
like a ‘friend’. Children may be
persuaded to send photos of themselves and their
friends, to share out personal contact details,
to use a web-cam, and to share intimate feelings
and ‘secrets’ online. They may also
be persuaded to meet these strangers in real
life. Some such children have been raped or
otherwise seriously sexually assaulted. In some
cases they have been murdered.
In some countries we are starting to see the
introduction of tracking services. Typically
they might use either the mobile phone network
or global positioning systems or a combination
of both. While these technologies can be put
to very good use, this capability to provide
information about the whereabouts of a chid
also lends itself to abuse. Care must be taken
to ensure adequate operational safeguards are
built into these services.
Via the Internet, mobile phones and other interactive
technologies, children and young people are
exposed to a wide range of pornographic, racist,
xenophobic, violent and other images and materials
which, even if they are legal, can be very damaging
indeed.
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